“Oh…really?” I perked up.
“Yeah. Don’t get too excited, though. It’s a tiny little cottage next to the barn.”
“All I’m excited about is a bed,” I sighed.
It took me a beat to realize he might’ve taken that differently than I had meant it. I turned to find him blinking slowly at the road, one side of his lips turned up.
“Not like that.” I rolled my eyes. That triggered the question that had been brewing in the back of my mind: what were we now? I clearly wasn’t in the right headspace to do anything with him, but we would belivingtogether for the next few months. In the same house. Possibly even in the same room. And tonight, it would most definitely be in the same bed.
“Like what?” he asked.
“What?”
“I don’t know, I just got to thinking…do we—”
“Jack?”
“Yeah, Mags?”
“Can we figure it out later?”
“Of course.” He nodded grimly.
I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Everything about this relationship seemed to shift whenever a new topic was brought up, and it threw me. Tonight, though, was not the time to talk about it. The events of today—and the last three days—had shaken me, and I didn’t want to deal with any more change. I just needed a breather.
Jack pulled the truck and trailer down a dark, gravel driveway and flipped his high beams on to see through the pitch black night. I shifted in my seat and adjusted the waistband of my leggings, then glanced at Jack, who tore his eyes away from me. His tongue ran across his lips as my gaze stayed on his face.
“Eyes on the road.” My cheeks burned.
Jack put the truck in park and turned off the ignition, but left on the headlights to shine on the gate in front of us. I leaped out of the cab, excited to finally stretch my legs. We met at the back of the trailer, and I let my eyes travel down his body. His tight, black t-shirt hugged his massive shoulders and biceps impossibly well, and the dark jeans he wore looked too good.
Helooked too good.
I watched him closely as he unhooked the latches on the trailer, opening the pair of doors one by one. The concentration in his expression made my whole body tight, and I shut my eyes and shivered before opening them back up to help him.
“Will you hand me the horses, and I’ll let them through the gate?” He turned, catching me in a daze.
“Yeah,” I answered quickly.Just get away from me so I can stop looking at you.
He left me alone to open the gate, and I stepped up into the trailer to meet the eyes of ten curious horses. They were exhausted from the drive and restless to leave the aluminum box they had been inside for nine hours.
I felt that.
Untying the first two horses’ lead ropes, I led them out of the trailer and towards the front of the rig, where Jack opened the gate. He met me with a slight nod and took them from me, while I raced to escape his eye contact. We might’ve had that trailer emptied in record time. I was desperate to find my own space and wallow in my lust and confusion and all of the overwhelming feelings I got around Jack Hennicke.
“Ray said he left the cottage unlocked for us,” Jack grunted as he lifted our suitcases out of the backseat of the truck. “You can head in if you want.”
“Oh, are we—like, is there just one room?” I was not in the right headspace to share a bed with this man.
“Yeah, just the one. It’s a tiny place, so the bed is probably a double.” He shook his head when I offered to take a suitcase and nodded toward the impending cottage of doom.
I stepped through the threshold and felt around for the light switch, but came up with nothing. The floor creaked beneath me as I held my hands out to feel around for anything. The sound of the suitcases dropping to the ground startled me, and I jumped as I felt Jack’s presence close behind me.
“Feel familiar?” He whispered from a few inches away. His hot breath on my neck brought me back to that night in the gift shop. The night that changed both of our lives.
I whipped around to face him, but he was so close that I lost my balance and gripped his shirt to steady myself. His hands instantly reached for my shoulders. Warmth seeped into my skin from his fingers. A sudden flash of memories of his hands on my body—everywhereon my body—rushed through my mind. Even though it was dark, his deep eyes pierced into mine, clear as glass. My heart picked up speed as one of his hands brushed a stray hair out of my face. Shivers fled down my spine as I shuddered at his touch. His breathing picked up from our proximity. My fingers itched to touch him, feel him, feel anything, anywhere. It felt like it had been months since I last held him. Our fun, no-strings relationship felt like a lifetime ago. But here he was, right now, watching me again, licking his bottom lip, his expression as intense as it always was before he had me. I wanted to kiss him. So fucking bad.
Abort! Back up!
